Ministry of Interior's Director of Traffic Brigadier Saad al-Kharji, Secretary General of Committee on National Road Safety Awareness Brigadier (Retd) Mohamed al-Malki, Mowasalat CEO Khalid al-Hail and others inspect a simulator at the venue of the meeting organised by Mowasalat at Torch Hotel. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam
Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
Experts have urged transport authorities to consider implementing reforms they felt would go a long way in improving the safety of road users.
Participating in a one-day meeting on "Safety in professional road transport operations," hosted by the Mowasalat in association with the International Road Transport Union (IRU) at Torch Hotel, speakers said the Ministry of Transport must initiate steps to enhance the professional competence of drivers, especially those involved in the operations of vehicles carrying hazardous goods, school buses, trailers and taxis.
Besides improving the professional capabilities of the drivers the experts also highlighted the need for instilling discipline among the road users.
On top of the agenda of the meeting was the importance of avoiding road accidents.
The meeting was held as part of the IRU's commitment to such an important campaign as the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, which has attracted a lot of attention across the world.
While highlighting the necessity of safe driving, some of the participants called upon the road users to be more alert.
"Each driver should always plan in advance what he should do depending on his needs without causing injuries to road users," said one of the speakers.
The drivers should also bear in mind the discipline or indiscipline of others.
Mowasalat CEO Khalid al-Hail inaugurated the meeting, which was attended among others by participants from Geneva, Turkey, Belgium, UK, UAE and Lebanon, besides the Ministry of Transport and Mowasalat officials.
IRU's permanent delegate to the Middle East and North African Region Haydar Ozkan delivered the keynote address and called upon the authorities to consider implementing stringent traffic laws. He emphasised the importance of the Ministry of Transport playing a pivotal role in enhancing professional competence of the drivers.
The IRU, which co-hosted the meet on Thursday has operations and affiliates in several countries and it has 44 accredited training institutes across the world, including in Qatar, which is managed by Karwa Driving School.
Head of IRU Academy Patrick Philip, Lt Saoud al-Hamad of the Ministry of Interior, subject experts Karin Genoe and Britta Lang, Keith Bell of Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Ademoli Gideon Ilori (MoI's traffic adviser), Haythem Sadeq, Nocolaas Traut (Qatar Petroleum), Mahmoud Dali Balta, Dr Rafel Consunji (Director of Injury Prevention, HMC) and Director of Karwa Driving School Robert Makando were among those spoke.
Among the topics deliberated upon were the necessity of innovative legislations for framing stringent traffic laws, main causes of accidents in commercial transport, traffic safety, upgrading road transport policies, accident management, success through the efforts of different teams in Qatar's National Traffic Safety Committee, tyre safety, IRU's road transport training programmes aimed at reduction in road traffic accidents and the use of simulators to reduce accidents.
